User Profile service cmdlets (SharePoint Server 2010)

In Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, the User Profile Service is used to store and process information about users. This information is stored as a collection of user profile properties per user. The user information must be imported into the user profile store before it can be used by various personalization-related features and people search. These properties can be imported from line-of-business applications and directory services (primarily Active Directory directory service and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)).

In SharePoint Server 2010, the use of social tagging, expertise tagging, and profile synchronization are new features.

SharePoint Server 2010 provides an enterprise-wide repository for storing social and expertise tags and for associating those tags with a user's profile. Administrators can control who can tag items on a given site, decide which tags can be used, and delete tags prior to a specific date or based on a specific user profile ID. Tagging relies on the Managed Metadata Service and can be enabled by using either the UI or Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

Profile synchronization synchronizes data in the SharePoint profile store with profile information contained in directory services across the enterprise, such as Active Directory or LDAP. After a connection to the appropriate directory service has been set up, profile synchronization can be scheduled to run on a regular basis.

You can use User Profile Service Windows PowerShell cmdlets to create and configure the User Profile Service and profile tags, and to configure permissions and all global settings for the User Profile Service.